Creativity experts say that regardless of the technique you use to generate ideas, there are two primary steps to the creative process: Divergence and convergence. Mind mapping software easily supports both of these phases, as this infographic illustrates.

Divergence, the first stage, has to do with generate a diverse variety of ideas. You need to diverge from your well-rutted paths of thinking and consider new possibilities. Mind mapping software lets you branch out in as many directions as you want, with almost complete freedom. You can capture tons of ideas, identify gaps in your information or people whose input you need – it’s quite flexible.

Convergence begins after you’re done brainstorming. During this stage, your goal is to narrow down the large number of ideas you generated to just a handful of high value ideas that you think you’d like to implement. In mind mapping software, this is supported by the ability to move topics and ideas around, rearranging them at will and playing “What if?” with different combinations. You can build upon promising ideas, and add implementation notes to them. You can also use icons to prioritize ideas and assign them to team members for further follow-up.